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What's the European definition of an SME

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361.

The main factors determining whether an enterprise is an SME are:

  1. staff headcountand
  2. either turnoveror balance sheet total.

Company category

Staff headcount

Turnover

or

Balance sheet total

Medium-sized

< 250

≤ € 50 m

≤ € 43 m

Small

< 50

≤ € 10 m

≤ € 10 m

Micro

< 10

≤ € 2 m

≤ € 2 m

These ceilings apply to the figures for individual firms only. A firm that is part of larger group may need to include staff headcount/turnover/balance sheet data from that group too.

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